So, I got back from Colorado Bend State Park and knew I loved camping. I started planning the Lost Maples trip right away. I made my reservation for another mid-week trip, this time planning 4 days, 3 nights. After 2 nights, I loved it so much, I extended my trip to 7 days, 6 nights.
GEAR
I went ahead and committed to getting my own cooking stuff. I found a Coleman Duel Fuel stove (propane) on Ebay and got the GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Camper Cookset, a GSI Outdoors Commuter Java Press, and a GSI Outdoors nForm Crossover Kitchen Kit. I really could have just brought what I needed from home, but I am pretty happy with that cook kit – it comes with a little plastic tub they all fit in that doubles as a wash basin, so I can carry it all to the dump station and wash them easily. I really hate the java press – that was just a stupid purchase. I wish I had bought a percolator. The kitchen kit (folding spatula, spoon, and tongs, salt/pepper/oil, is pretty stupid too, but I’ve been using it, and I’ll keep using it until it melts or falls apart or whatever it’s going to do.
I bought the REI Co-op Camp Compact Chair, which I love. The Colorado Bend River trail got me interested in hiking, so I got some trekking poles, and hiking boots. I saw how much great hiking Lost Maples park has, and I didn’t want to do all of that hiking in my tennis shoes, even though they were fine for Colorado Bend. I found some KEEN Durand Mid WP Hiking Boots – Women’s in the REI Garage. Sadly, they gave me blisters and I didn’t like the way the boot dug into my ankle bone. Thus began my shoe odyssey – I’m still kind of on it… :/
The trekking poles I bought were not adjustable – they are 110 cm, perfect for me, but I recommend getting adjustable ones if you are going to buy a pair. First of all, you want them at different heights when you are doing steep climbs or downhills than you do when you are walking flat. Second, if you end up going backpacking and want to go really lightweight, you’ll end up with a tent that requires trekking poles instead of tent poles. You just want to be really careful about locking them down – they slipped twice on me and I’m lucky I didn’t end up flat on my face. I’m still not sure whether they are for me – they seem to make me slower and more cautious… less sure-footed than I actually am.
CAMPGROUNDS
I got in on a Tuesday morning planning to leave Friday before the weekenders arrived. I pitched my tent. This time I was a little braver about not knowing things and spent some time with the park office asking questions about the park and getting the trail maps.
The campground loop isn’t much to write home about, but I liked my spot (#12) – it is close to the restrooms, it backed up to a tiny wood that if you walk through it and cross the road, you hit the Sabinal river, and the dump station is very close. If I car camp there again, I’ll try to get #16 or #17 – they were the most secluded spots.
Shout out to all the people who dumped all their food out at the water/electric hookup leaving me with a monster red-ant pile to contend with all week. We battled. They won.
Once again I bought firewood, and didn’t use it. Partly it was being nervous about trying and failing to light a fire. But also, it turns out, I don’t really want a fire when I’m alone. It’s not enough light to actually do anything, and you have to put it out – I don’t want to be the girl who burned down Lost Maples… Anyway, that’s just a thing to figure out about yourself. I’m happy to hang out with the lantern until it’s creepy dark, at which point, I’ll dive into my tent and hang out in there. I’m pretty small, so it doesn’t feel like a prison cell to me in there.
HIKING
Lost Maples as 3 different trails – the East Trail, which starts with the Lost Maple Trail (tiny but pretty), the West Trail and the West Loop Trail. I did the East Trail twice and the West and West Loop Trails once. They are easy to moderate. They each have one difficult section – steep and rocky – that lasts about 1 mile. The rest of the time you are either ridge walking or doing a slow ascent/descent. The West Trail, though is mostly loose rock and I found the West Loop kind of challenging.
Overall, the terrain is mostly very rocky, until the ridge, where it’s plain trail. There are plenty of small creek crossings, some dry some wet. You could do the whole thing in one day pretty easily – it’d be a 12 or 13 mile day depending on how you take the loops. But I recommend doing it more slowly if you have the time. And I recommend following the trails to each of the primitive campsites. G was my favorite. Spooky.
You have to walk pretty far to get to either of the trailheads from the campgrounds. I walked a couple of times and drove to the nearest parking lot the other times. I was a little embarrassed to do that, but I had blisters from my new hiking boots and just didn’t want to road walk if I didn’t have to.
I really didn’t take very many photos, and the ones I did take are not amazing. I took a bunch of videos and talked my way through the hikes – in portrait, so I’ll not share them here, but the least horrible ones are on my youtube channel. I didn’t get any shots of the west loop or west trail, photos or videos.
One pretty lucky encounter took place on my West Trail day – I was at the trailhead walking behind a man who was moving very slowly, but the trail was narrow there and I couldn’t pass him without being a dick about it. He stopped suddenly and cocked his head toward the woods. I almost bumped into him so I asked him what he was doing. He said his name was Lee and he was a Friend of Lost Maples, a storyteller, and a trail guide, but he was there to see the golden-cheeked warbler (along with about 50 serious birders), because Lost Maples is one of its only habitats, and I happened to be there at peak viewing season. I saw one about 5 minutes later – the one he had heard. We got to talking, and then he took me on a tour of the West trail – all of his secret favorite places, to check on orchids he had planted, hidden waterfalls, etc. Right before we parted ways, he told me a storytelling story about Larry the Lizard. He performed it at full voice on the trail, just for me. It’s like when someone sings a song at you… Right after that we ran into his relatives who hiked back to the trailhead with him, and I continued on alone to do the West and West Loop trails. I ended up doing about 9 miles that day.
from ridge of East Trail 
from ridge of East Trail 
me doing what i do best 
overlook of ravens’ nest 
this is what most of the trail terrain was – rocky 
cactus along the ridge 
east trail ridge walk 
east trail ridge
I took a day off the next day at camp, and did some drawing and writing. Threw some tarot. Sat very still. Ate great food. And then the next day I repeated the East Trail. It was a Saturday, and the park was full of families, kids on bikes, but not partiers. I bikepacker and a motorcycle-packer (is that a thing) each showed up. I had fun looking at all of the gear. The trail was un-fun on a Saturday. Two large teen church groups from San Antonio were there, and their chaperones were straight-up terrible stewards of the park. And they couldn’t keep up with the kids, who were just running ahead, yelling, throwing shit. I could hear both groups the entire 4-hour hike – no matter where they were, because, canyons. They let the kids climb the trees off trail and scream and throw about 150 rocks against the pond walls, which has a hawk’s nest in it. I wrote the church a letter, because I turned into that lady… and I got a really nice response from the pastor promising to do better.
Later I went back to the ponds to try to have some peaceful water time, and to explore around there a bit. It was a crazy scene. Two ravens were forcing the red-tailed hawk whose nest is in the ponds cavern wall out of its nest. It was brutal – screeching flying attacking flying hiding screeching. I followed the attack for a while on the trail, and finally got too distressed over it and went back to camp.
Camp was full of kids on bikes playing and I really enjoyed it. Normally, it would bother me, but I found a way to embrace the “outdoor motel” quality to it, and everyone really respected the quiet time rules, so I dug it.
One thing – I thought you could swim there. I walked all over the place in my bathing suit trying to find anyone else swimming anywhere. I saw nothing, and didn’t care enough to go to the park office and ask. I still don’t know if you can swim there.